Son tells of his mother’s ordeal at Oakden nursing home

THE family of a woman subjected to appalling abuse by a carer at an Adelaide mental health facility tried to raise the alarm but say they were fobbed off by management.

Mitchell Mott

The AdvertiserApril 21, 20179:05pm

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April 21st 2017

a year ago

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THE family of a woman subjected to appalling abuse by a carer at an Adelaide mental health facility tried to raise the alarm but say they were fobbed off by management.

Stewart Johnston’s mother Helen was 71 when she was admitted to the Oakden Older Persons Mental Health Facility in 2008 for a planned five-week stay to treat chronic pain.

But Ms Johnston stayed for only two weeks and told her family of her ordeal after she was discharged.

“She confessed four days afterwards,” Mr Johnston said.

“There was a husband-and-wife team who were the night carers for that whole side of the home.

“She was in a wheelchair and she said she had been thrown down on to a toilet and left there.

“She rang the bell for 30 minutes and the husband came back in and slapped her across the face and swore at her.

“He said there were other patients and she would stay on the toilet until he had time to get her.”

Furious at the abuse, Mr Johnston and his father, Helen’s husband, returned to the facility to confront management.

“Someone said ‘rest assured we will take care of it’ and that the people involved would be put off with pay while it was being investigated. Then we didn’t hear anything else.”

Convinced by management not to go to the police and seek criminal charges, the family instead tried to focus on finding another option to treat Ms Johnston’s chronic pain.

But in the wake of the alleged abuse Ms Johnston, who died in 2014, was fearful of being left anywhere overnight and refused further treatment.

Mr Johnston said the incident and its impact “has caused a lot of angst”.

“The family definitely had no confidence in the system whatsoever after that,” Mr Johnston said.

The case is one of many that have emerged since the Government ordered the centre’s closure on Thursday after a damning review of patient care.

Glynde retiree Jim Leppa, 83, said he was “in shock”.

He regularly visits his wife Maria, who has been in the Oakden facility for five years.

The findings of abuse and mistreatment of dementia patients had upset him and he had not been given any information about his wife’s future care. “It’s a shock to me, I just came in and they’re telling us they’re going to close, it’s terrible,” he said. “I don’t know what I can do.”

Maria Leppa, 76, has been treated for dementia at Oakden for five years. Her condition began to deteriorate six months ago.

Mr Leppa said his wife has had “no trouble” at the facility, and he had no suspicion of the allegations revealed in the independent report.

Mr Leppa said his wife was “not too good” and had progressively lost her ability to stand and communicate.